I’ve been riding an unbelievable reading hot streak lately. It seems like every book I’ve picked up has been insightful, entertaining, or interesting. So I thought I’d share a few of my favorite reads from the last year or so.

Essentialism by Greg McKeown. Thanks to Andy Hagans for tipping me off to this book. I was nodding in agreement from page one here. Essentialism proposes a new way of thinking about being an entrepreneur, employee, or boss: do less, but better.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. This is a pretty challenging subject matter — death — but I really think it is a must read for everyone (thanks to my mom for this rec). It’s a smart, pragmatic, and thoughtful look at a very complex component of life: that part at the end when bodies and minds start to fail.

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs. This might be the best book I’ve read in…well, a really long time. It’s the (true) story of a young man who grew up in the rough part of Newark, escaped to an Ivy League university, and was dead in his early 30s. It’s inspiring and heartbreaking, and was hard to put down. Holy cow I loved this book!

Quiet by Susan Cain. If you’re an introvert (or think you might be), read this book. If you’re an extrovert, you probably won’t enjoy it nearly as much. Incredibly insightful into the two types of people in this world.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. The translation here can be a bit rough, but I loved this book. Try to read it as a guide not only for physical organization, but for organization of your professional and personal lives as well. Very simple, yet insightful.

Other recommended books (novels, for those who just can’t get in to non-fiction):

Random Notes

Two random notes:

A shout out to my former colleague Tom Reese, who is firing up his own blog. He’s someone I’ve always admired as an entrepreneur and self-taught jack of all trades.

I got to watch my 14-year old niece perform at an open mic in Chicago over the weekend (performing an original song no less!). It was incredible to see her confidence and talent on full display! Future rock star!

Some comments from Mark Cuban about the size of the current tech bubble made some waves this week (likely thanks to a few sensationalized headlines). His thought is basically that this time around, much smaller investors have major skin in the game (relatively major at least; a $25,000 investment in a family member’s startup is nothing to a VC, but may represent a major portion of net worth for a middle class family).

There’s probably a lot of truth to this. But in the spirit of staying positive as I get back into the process of firing up a business, I am also encouraged by all tools now out there that weren’t around five years ago when I was going this for the first time. So many great tools that help entrepreneurs stay organized and focused have popped up. They’re obviously too many to note, but here are a few that I’d never heard of but have loved at least tinkering with:

I’m sure everyone working in the startup world can immediately think of tools that make their lives much easier. That wasn’t really the case five years ago…which is exciting.

On a personal note, my oldest nephew turned 18 this week. Watching him grow into a talented, smart, kind, and friendly young man has been such a joy to me as an uncle–I can’t imagine how proud his parents (my brother and sister-in-law) must be. Happy birthday Danny!